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Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently.

In the financial world, there are many indicators investors can use to track publicly traded companies. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can beat the market by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a peek at the latest action regarding Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD).

What does the smart money think about Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD)?

At year’s end, a total of 12 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -14% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global had the biggest position in Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD), worth close to $85 million, comprising 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $12 million position; the fund has 0% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, Drew Cupps’s Cupps Capital Management and Van Schreiber’s Bennett Lawrence Management.

Because Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD) has faced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there exists a select few hedgies who sold off their full holdings at the end of the year. At the top of the heap, David Stemerman’s Conatus Capital Management said goodbye to the largest position of all the hedgies we track, valued at close to $23 million in stock.. Sean Cullinan’s fund, Point State Capital, also dumped its stock, about $5 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds at the end of the year.

How have insiders been trading Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD). These stocks are Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO), Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI), Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR), and FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC). This group of stocks are the members of the scientific & technical instruments industry and their market caps match CPHD’s market cap.